Tire-building apparatus



March 1 1927.

I M. c. scRoTE TIRE BUILDING APPARATUS File April 29. 1924 2 Sheets$heet 2 Patented Mar. 1, 1927. UNNIT'EID ssrA'rss I I 1,619,377 PATENT OFFICE.

' MERLE o. scnorn, or AKRON, OHIO, AssIGNoR TO THE B. r. eoonnron COMPANY, on

NEW roan, N. Y.,, A CORPORATION or NEW YORK.

TIRE-BUILDING APPARATUS.

Application filed April 29, 1924. Serial No. 709,795.

This invention relates to tire building apparatiis, and more particularly. to automatic apparatus for stitching into place tirebuilding material such as the respective sidewall portions of a combined tread and side wall strip, in the manufacture of pneumatic tire'-casings. 1

The chief object of my invention is to provide apparatus for quickly, accurately and efi'ectively working into shape the side wall portions of a tire casing in the manufacture thereof. A more specific object is automaticallyto bring a tire tool quickly to open ative position, feed it at relatively slow speed during its engagement with the work, and

preferred form, and the work thereon, the

tire tools being shown in operativeposition, Fig. 2 is a transverse section of a tire core and the work thereon, and a pair of stitcher rollers at their initial operating positions.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 33 of Fig. 1,

parts being shown in elevation and broken awa 4 is a' section on line 44 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a section online 5-5 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary elevation, on a large scale, of part of the apparatus shown in Fi 1, as viewed from the rear thereof.

Re? rring to the drawings, 10 is the frame of a tire building machine, 11 a rotatable spindle journaled therein, 12 an expansible chuck on the front end of the latter, and 13 an annular tire-building core mounted upon said chuck, the aforesaid parts being of any adapted to be driven by any usual or suitable means. The core 13'is shown with a tire in the course of construction thereon, 14 being forced rubber tread, which in this case includes integral side wall portions adapted to cover the respective sides of'the tire as far as its beads. The, devices for manipulating the fabric plies to form the tire carcass 14. and for attaching the tread strip 15 to said "carcass at its tread portion only, as shown in Fig. 2, not being a part of this invention, are omitted from the drawings.

Secured in a floor-bracket 16 adjacent the then quickly restore it to its inoperative or retracted position, with the advantage of. sav

standard construction and the spindle being the rubberized fabric carcass and 15 the rein machine frame 10 is an inclined fluid-pressure cylinder 17, radially disposed with relation to the tire core 13, and having the usual piston 18, a fluid pressure connection 19 in its lower end, a fluid pressure connection 20 at its upper end, and an upper end-closure formed in opposite sides of said sleeve 23.

Thus the cross-head 24:, which carries the tools for operating upon the, tread 15, is adapted to be raised and lowered to and from operative position as the respective ends of the cylinder 17 are alternately charged.

The cross-head 24 is formed with two pairs of parallel, spaced-apart, arms 24*, 24*,extending laterally of the tire-core 13, and

each pair of arms having. a pivot-pin 27 journaled in their outer ends, each pivot pin being provided with a retaining collar 28 at one end, outside its journal, and having its opposite endof reduced diameter, the pin belng formed with a screw-thread 27 adjacent said reduced portion. Journaled on each pivot-pin is a downwardly-extending cam arm 29 and an upwardly-extending tool arm 30, said arms having their adjacent hub faces complementally serrated, and held together in angularly aidjusted position so as to operate as a unit by a nut 31 on the threaded portion 27 of the pivot pin. The

free end of each cam arm 29 is. provided with a flanged cam-roller 32 coacting with 9 a cam-plate 33 secured to the floor-bracket 16 and disposed longitudinally of the cylinder. The cam roller 32 is held yieldingly in engagement with the cam 33 by a helical compression spring 34:, the latter being mounted upon a supporting rod 35 secured to the cross-head 24 and extending through a slot 36 (Fig. 1) in the cam-arm 29, said spring bearing against the outer face of said" cam arm and against a collar 37 on the outer end of said rod 35.

Each tool-arm 30 is provided with a lon git-udinally adjustable bracket 38 having a clamping bolt 39 mounted in its free end, said bolt clamping against a serrated hub portion of the bracket 38 the serrated hub portion of an arm 40. Pivoted on the bolt 39 is a tool carrying lever 41 having a stitching roller or tool 42 journaled on one end thereof, the arm 40 being cut away at its hub to accommodate the lever 41 without subjecting the latter to the force of the clamping bolt 39, as shown in Fig. 1. Slid ably mounted in'an aperture in the outer end of the arm 40 is a spring bolt 40, one end thereof being pivoted to the outer arm of the tool carrying lever 41 and its other end being formed with a retaining head for a compression spring 41 interposed between said head and the arm 40, for urging the stitching roller 42 against the work.

The cam lates 33 are so formed as to swing the stitching rollers 42 toward each other as the cross-head 24 approaches its uppermost position, to cause said rollers to follow the contour of the work, and to permit the springs 34 to swing said rollers outwardl during the return movement of the crossead.

For reducing the speed of the radial movement of the cross-head 24 as the roller 42 engages the work, a rack 43 is slidably mounted parallel to the cylinder 17 in s aced-apart apertured ears 44, 44 formed on the floor bracket 16, the upper end of said rack passing through an aperture in an ear 45 formed on the cross-head 24, and provided with an adjustable collar 46 adapted to be engaged by said ear 45 during the outward or rising movement of said crosshead, said collar being so positioned as to.

be engaged at the same time that the roller '42 engages the work. An angular stop 47 secured to the rack 43 and extending laterally therefrom between the ears 44 is adapted by engagement with the lowermost of said ears,'to determine the lower or inoperative position of said rack, and astud or in 43 projecting from the rack 43 at a suita 1e point is adapted, to be engaged by the ear 45 during the return movement of the crosshead 24 to restore said rack to inoperative sition in case its own weight is not sufcient for this purpose.

The rack 43 is meshed with a pinion 48 secured ion a collar 49 loosely journaled on a driven shaft 50, the latter being journaled at one end of the floor-bracket 16, and at its other end in a floor-bracket '51 (Fig. 1) adjacent the rear of the tire building machine. Said shaft 50 is provided with a sprocket 52, and driven through a sprocket chain 53, sprocket sproc et 55, sprocket chain 56 and sproc et 57, from the rotatable spindle 11 upon which the latter is mounted, the relative sizes of the respective sprockets being such that the shaft 50 is driven at relatively slow speed in comparison with the spin die 11.

49 upon which is pivoted a pawl 58 which engages a ratchet 59 secured upon the shaft 50, said pawl being held yieldingly in engage'ment therewith by a flat spring 60 mounted upon the collar 49 and bearing against the free end of saidpawl, the ratchet being adapted normally to run under the pawl as the shaft 50 rotates, counter-clockwise as viewed in Fig. 6, without turning the collar 49, but, by engagement with the pawl, to retard the turning of said collar and the pinion 48 thereon, and consequently to retard the rising of the rack and crosshead, when the upward movement of the cross-head 24 causes its ear 45 to engage the collar 46 on the rack 43 to draw the latter toward the work.

In the operation of my apparatus, a tire carcass 14 is built upon the annular core 13,

a tire tread 15 applied thereto and rolled down at the'tread portion of the tire in the usual manner, substantially to the position shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. The tire assembly continuing to be rotated, the lower end of the cylinder 17 is charged, driving the cross-head 24 and rollers 42 mounted thereon toward the tire.

At the initial outward movement of the cross-head 24, the cams 33, acting against the springs 34, swing the rollers 42 toward each other, for engagement with the work as shown in Fig. 2, and hold their carr ing arms 30 in substantially the same space relation until near the end 'of their radial movement toward the axis of rotation of the tire, when said cams swing the said arms 30 furthertoward each other, as shown in Fig. 3, to cause the sprin -backed rollers 42; to follow the contour o the tire adjacent its beads. The springs 41 of the roller mountings hold the rollers yieldingly against the work and permit said rollers to ad ust themselves, throughout a sufficient ran e, to the curved contour of the tire, notwit standing the fact that the cams 33 are not of a form corresponding precisely to the contour of the tire. Thus the cams determine the course of the rollers hinge pins 39 about the tire, while the springs 41 maintain the rollers gieldingly in engagement with the tire.

T e collar 46 is so positioned on the rack 43 that the ear 45 engages it at approximately the same time the rollers 42 engage the work, and as said rack is drawn outward by the cross-head 24, the movement of the latter is retarded by the relatively slow rotation of the shaft 50 actin through the ratchet 59, pawl 58, and t e pinion 48 meshed with said rack. The speed of the shaft 50 is so reduced with relation to the speed of the spindle 11, that the rollers 42, after enga ement with the work, are ad-- vanced ra ially thereof slowly enough to permit them. progressively to roll .orstitch the unattached lateral portions of the tread When the stitching operation is finished,

.the upper end of the cylinder 17 is charged and its lower end exhausted, lowering the cross-head 24: and rollers 42, the cam 33 per-- mitting the springs 34 to spread apartthe tool carrying arms and release the pressure of the tools u n the work as they are withdrawn radially therefrom. The rack 43 is returned. to inoperative position byits own weight, or if this is not sufficient, by

contact of said ear with the stud 43?, the pawl 58 running upon the ratchet 59 during this return movement of the rack.

The rack mechanism constitutes positive drive, direct, hold-back means for. retarding the advance of the tools by the fluid pressure cylinder, whereby the rate of the tools ad-' Vance radially of the work. is accurately'determined, so that its spiral path upon the work is uniform upon successive tires, as distinguished from devices in which the radial movement of the tools depends upon the rate at which they are permitted to spread apart and so to wedge the tire between them under the force of simple yielding means urging them in a radial direction.

Modifications may be resorted .to without departing from the. scope ofmy invention,

and'I'do not limit my claims wholly to the specific construction shown.

I claim:

1. Tire-building apparatus including means for supporting and driving the work, a stitcher'roller, means for q ulckly advancing the same approximately 1nto engagement with the work, and means for thereafter advancing said roller radially of the work toward the latters axis of rotation in determinate relation to the speed of the work.

2. Tire building apparatus comprising a tire core, means for supporting and driving the same, a tiretool mountedfadjacent thereto for movement into and out of contact with the work, yielding means for presenting said tool to the work by rapid movement and for moving it thereover toward the axis of rotation of the work, yielding meansv for urging.

the tool against the work while it is so moved, and hold-back means opposed to the first said yielding means for retarding the latters movement of said tool while the tool is in operation upon. the work.

3. Tire building apparatus comprising a tire core, means for supporting and driving the same, a tire tool mountedadjacent thereto for movement into and out of contact with the work, yielding means for-presenting said tool ,to the work by rapid movement and for moving it thereover, and hold-back means having positive driving connection with said tire core for retarding the movement of the tool in contact with the work by said yield ing means.

4. Tire building apparatus comprising a tire core, means for supporting and drivlng the same, a tire tool mounted adjacent thereto for movement into and out of contact with the work, fluid pressure means for presenting said tool to the work by rapid movement and for movi ng it thereover toward the axis of rotation of the work, yielding means for urging the tool against the work while it is so moved and hold-back means opposed to the first said fluid pressure means for retarding the latters movement of said tool while the tool is in operation upon the work.

5. Tire building apparatus comprising a I tire core, means for supporting and driving the same, a tire tool mount-ed adjacentthereto for movement into and out of contact with,

the work, fluid pressure means for presenting SEIId'tOOl to the work by rapid movement and -for moving it thereover, and hold-back means havlng positive driving connection with said tire core .for retard ng the move- 'ment of the tool in contact with the work by work by the direct action of said cylinder,.

hold-back means for retarding the action of said cylinder, a' tire tool on said mounting, and cam means for laterally moving said tire tool to cause it to follow the contour of the work asit 'is moved radially of the latter by said cylinder. e 7

7. Tire building apparatus comprising a tire core, means for supporting and driving the same, a fluid pressure cylinder disposed substantially radially of said core, a tire tool moun.ting operatively connected to said cylinder and adapted to be moved radially of the work by the direct action of said cylinder, hold-back means for retarding the action of said cylinder, a tire tool on said mounting, and yielding means for urging said tool against the work as it is moved radially of the latter by said cylinden 8. :Tire building apparatus comprisinga tire core, means for supporting and driving the same, a tire tool mounted adjacent theresaid tire, means for retracting it therefrom, 10

and means operatively connecting the corerotating means and the tool-advancing means for controlling the advance of said tool while the latter is engaged with said tire.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set 15 my hand this 25th day of April, 1924.

MERLE G. SCROTE. 

